The Village Hidden in the Leaves
by Brony Boy
Summary: Without the Elements of Harmony ever existing, the princesses had to develop a new style of fighting to defeat Discord. Now, ponies keep a tradition of learning these techniques to defend their nations. This is Pinkie's story of her rise to greatness in becoming the greatest ninja. Rated T for eventual violence
1. Chapter 1

**Me: So Here we are.**

**Pinkie: So this is the Story that's going to star me?**

**Me: Eeyup, good luck with your ninja training, you might need it... Wait a second, how did you get into my room again?!**

**Pinkie: How am I gonna need good luck?**

**Me: ssshhh, spoilers. I do not own My Little Pony or any references that may be made. Now, Pinkie, how exactly did you get here?**

**Pinkie: Uh... Sorry, gotta go. Becoming a ninja isn't easy. *uses smoke bomb and disappears***

**Me: *cough, cough* Really?! 'Cause that looked pretty easy to me! Anyway, Brackets [ ] show my own extra thought**

**Chapter 1**

**Enter the Prankster Pony**

* * *

_The Elements of Harmony? What are those? When Discord was in control the princesses had to train and find a new technique of battle to defeat him. This is where they discovered the hidden power of chakra to use a new kind of magic that anypony could use that they called jutsu._

_However, the defeat of Discord brought the creation of a new threat: a new beast with the appearance of an enormous timber wolf with its own special powers._

_Many ponies were taught the jutsu that the princesses discovered to try and defeat this monster. Many died in the process, but eventually the monster was defeated and sealed within a special newborn foal._

_When this foal died after a long life, the spirit of the beast was then sealed into a new filly. This cycle continued many times over. The ponies who inherit this spirit live sad lives though. Other ponies who knew what lies within these spirit holders became frightened and shunned those who were forced upon this 'gift'._

_Sometimes, the fear would even lead to violence. When the violence finally led to the death of an innocent foal, only a kid, then Princess Celestia declared that the legend of the timber beast was to never be mentioned again._

_On the day of the foal who was murdered by those around him, the spirit of the timber beast was imprisoned within a young pink filly. This is her story for the rise to greatness._

* * *

It was an average morning in Ponyville, the number one provider of ninja for the land of Equestria. In the distance you could see the shining capitol, Canterlot, the home of the immortal Princess Celestia, founder of the ninja arts.

Here we meet a young filly by the name of Pinkamena Diane Pie, Pinkie Pie for short. Her mane and tail were puffs of pink, almost like clouds. Her coat is a slightly lighter pink. On her flank is an image of three balloons, two light blue and one yellow; this is her cutie mark and shows that her special talent in life is parties, but more importantly making others smile. And that, is the most important thing anypony could possible do.

Pinkie was raised on a rock farm as a filly. Her family always seemed grumpy towards her, but she never knew why. The reason that Pinkie even gained her cutie mark was because she was able to make all of her family members finally smile. When she grew up, she moved to Ponyville and started to work with Mr. and Mrs. Cake in their cozy bakery of Sugar Cube Corner.

Today, she was spending her time making herself happy, however. Sometimes when everypony is already happy, and she is not needed, she enjoys pulling pranks on her fellow villagers. Today, she had her fun by attaching a multitude of balloons to the town hall and forcing it to rise up into the sky.

Pinkie didn't know where she got the balloons from exactly. It's just one of the coincidences that she seemed to have part of the time. Whenever Pinkie ever needed something, no matter what the reason, that something always came to her.

Maybe that was the reason that Pinkie was barely passing in ninja school. She wasn't the best at using her chakra properly, but when it came to combat, she always seemed to have the perfect weapon on hand.

All these thoughts passed by in her head when the scream of Mayor Mare brought her back to the present. At the call of help, groups of village ninja trotted in, popping one balloon at a time so that the building would slowly lower.

While the hustle and bustle of all this was going on, Pinkie began to back up slowly, knowing that she would be in major trouble... that is... until she bumped into somepony behind her.

"Hello, Miss Pie," a familiar voice came from behind her.

"Uh... hi, Miss Cheerilee." Pinkie turned around to see her ninja teacher, purple coat with a light pink mane and a slightly lighter stripe down the middle.

Cheerilee looked up at the town hall. "Funny, I wonder how that happened," she said in a neutral tone. "Have you seen this?" obviously being rhetorical.

"I'm sorry," Pinkie whispered.

"What was that?"

"I'm sorry!" this time she yelled a tad loudly. Realizing that she had just screamed at her sensei, she quickly apologized.

Cheerilee facehoofed in disappointment. She whispered to herself, "What am I going to do with you." Cheerilee then looked Pinkie in the eyes and said it was time for class and to follow.

The two made their way through town until they finally reached the ninja school. After entering, still being seven minutes early before the first class, the two were unsurprised by the usual sight of Twilight Sparkle being the only one in the room and already in her assigned seat. Twilight is a light shade of purple. Her mane is straight with a dark shade of blue with a dark pink stripe in the middle.

"Good morning, Miss Cheerilee," she said nonchalantly.

Once again, Cheerilee facehoofed at the sight. "This is the strangest class I have had yet," she said to herself. She then looked up at Twilight and sighed. "Twilight, how many times have I told you to not show up ten minutes early to class?"

"Exactly one hundred eighty one times, counting today," Twilight replied happily to her teacher. "Otherwise known as every day of school to this point."

"Then why are you here?" Cheerilee asked.

Twilight looked quizzically at her teacher. "Because I didn't come here ten minutes early. I came nine minutes early."

Cheerilee raised her hoof, ready to hit herself again, but instead just put it down, trotted over to the wall, and just began to bang her head into it over and over.

Twilight stared down at Pinkie from her seat, the seats being row after row going upward. Twilight had had a grudge against her ever since the spar they had to do for class the month before.

Twilight, herself, was a master at ninjutsu, jutsu that used an element to attack. She had Pinkie on the ropes, forcing her back further and further with blasts of powerful air.

All of a sudden, Pinkie grabbed the perfect weapon to stop the attacks and pin Twilight to the ground and win. The strange thing was, Twilight could have sworn that there was nothing on the table before. It was as though it only appeared just to help Pinkie out.

That's impossible though, right?

"Pinkie," she said.

At the sound of her voice, Pinkie lifted her head to look at Twilight. "Yes?" she asked cheerfully.

"I want to ask you something," by this point there were now about three minutes before class and their fellow students were starting to make their way into the room. "You show almost no actual skill when it comes to jutsu, your greatest skill is using weapons. Yet whenever you seem to forget your weapons, you still find the perfect one to use in the situation. How is that exactly?"

Pinkie went into deep thought over how this was possible, but, thinking not being her strong point, just shrugged it off. "I'm not sure exactly. Guess I'm just lucky like that." She then gave Twilight a huge smile before trotting to her seat, just in time for the first bell.

'Luck? Is that really all it is?' Twilight thought to herself.

The idea made sense, but there had to be a bigger reason than just being lucky twenty-four, seven.

Miss Cheerilee finally stopped banging her head on the wall and trotted behind her desk. "Okay," she said mainly to herself to calm down, "let's start the class off with some simple trivia." Right on time, nearly every student moaned in displeasure. "Can..." she was interrupted by a student giving a late moan, "Can anypony answer what the four lands of power are?"

Nopony raised their hand except for Twilight.

"Anypony?" Cheerilee asked again, not wanting Twilight to give the answer since she answered EVERY SINGLE ONE. "Anypony? … Fine, Twilight, please give the answer to the class."

Twilight stood up and cleared her throat. "The four main lands of power are Equestria, Saddle Arabia, Gryphonica (the land where griffons come from), and the Crystal Empire even though it is part of Equestria."

"Very nice, Twilight," Cheerilee complimented. "Can you explain why the Crystal Empire is considered a land of power when it is not its own individual land?"

Once again, Twilight cleared her throat. "The reason the Crystal Empire is a land of power is because it was, at one point, its own nation. When Equestria conquered the nation, her majesty, Princess Celestia, allowed for them to continue their practice of raising ninjas for their own protection."

"That is correct. Now, can anyone name the cities in which ninjas are raised within their respective countries?" Once again, the only pony to raise his or her hand was Twilight Sparkle. Cheerilee sighed once again. "Yes, Twilight?"

"The villages that raise ninja go by the following: The Crystal Empire (known as the Village Hidden in the Ice), the combination of Canterlot and Ponyville to form the Village Hidden in the Leaf, the capital of Saddle Arabia, Baghdad (The Village Hidden in the Sand), and the capital of Gryphonica, which has no name other than The Village Hidden in the skies. They seem to take the ninja tradition very seriously."

Cheerilee nodded in approval and started to trot around the room. "Now, as you all know," she explained, "tomorrow is graduation day for those of you have passed your classes. However, you still have one final test, for those of you who are on the fence between failing and passing, this can either make it or break it for you." She then turned to face the class. "The final exam, make a clone of yourself. It doesn't matter what kind. Shadow? Sure. Water? Why not? Make an illusion? Fine by me, as long as you can do so."

Nervous students stole glances from one to another, one of these being Pinkie. Not being the best at controlling her chakra, she wasn't sure how she was going to do this.

One after another, students were being called up to take their exam. The final student to go for the day was the bottom of the class, Hoity Toity, who was too busy trying to make himself look good to learn how to make a clone.

"Okay, nice try Hoity," Cheerilee said to try and make the colt deva feel better over his clone which resembled a mule more than Hoity. "We're done for today, those of you who have taken the test and passed include Twilight Sparkle," she stole a glance at the student who made a perfect illusion, "Rainbow Dash, Derpy Hooves, Trixie Lulamoon-"

"That's the Great and Powerful Trixie!" interrupted said mare.

Cheerilee frowned again, "I can still fail you, Miss Lulamoon." Trixie shrank down in her seat, not wanting to have to retake the class for a third year [yes, this was her second try]. "Also to pass are Berry Punch, Fluttershy, and Applejack. Those of you who haven't taken the exam will take it tomorrow before graduation. Good luck to you all."

* * *

**That Night**

Pinkie tried for the tenth time that night to make a stable clone from water coming from her restroom sink in Sugar Cube Corner. The form looked like her, but moments later it fell apart to form a clear puddle on the floor.

Having lost hope in herself, Pinkie fell to the floor exhausted. She then started crying her eyes, fear of not fulfilling her dreams taking over.

"Why must it come to this?" she asked herself. She lifted her head and looked at her reflection in the pool of water. A sudden idea then came to her mind. She quickly left her current home and ran straight into the Everfree Forest.

"Let me see here," Pinkie said to herself, standing in front of a giant field of brambles, her saddle bag on her back. "Nana Pie's old fairy tale went something like: 'Where the brambles are thickest, there you will find, a pond beyond the most twisted of vines.'"

Pinkie continued on her way, the brambles sometimes getting stuck in her super long, curly mane and tail. At one point she was thinking about cutting them when she got back to town, but the idea came to a halt when she made it through the brambles and fell down a hole at the end. She tumbled head over hoof down, the only reason that she was able to survive was because of her mane acting like a pillow and cushioning the fall.

"Oh, sweet mane, I will never doubt you again," Pinkie said to her hair while petting it.

When she finally got over the shock of almost dying, Pinkie looked up to see a crystal blue pond. "Oh my Celestia!" she cried. "That is the biggest puddle I have ever seen! Wait... giant puddle, crystal blue, me getting a monologue because I'm clearly the main character, and the fact that I am almost guaranteed to pass the final exam must mean... um... hang on a second... uh... oh right, this must be the Mirror Pond!"

"That's right," a high pitched voice came from the pond. Pinkie walked over and glanced in, only to see her own reflection. "Welcome," the reflection said on its own. "Now, just walk into here and I will be free, your eternal slave."

Pinkie, pondered the idea. "Hmmm, eternal slave... or ninja..." After finishing her sentence, she stuck a bottle she had grabbed from her saddle bag into the pool. "I think being a ninja is a lot more fun."

Her reflection was absorbed into said bottle, screaming in agony as it was transferred into a new, smaller prison.

"H-hey!" The voice yelled as it was sucked in. "You c-can't do this to me! You are supposed to free me so I can take over the world!"

"I thought you were going to be my eternal slave?"

"Did you really believe me?"

"Hmmmm... nope," Pinkie answered with a smile.

The mirror image of Pinkie continued to mumble to herself as the two made their way back to Sugar Cube Corner for the night.

"So if you're an evil form of me," Pinkie asked the mirror of herself while other ponies were making clones, "then does that mean that any clone I make with you will be evil?"

Finally accepting her fate, the mirror of Pinkie sighed with annoyance. "No, that only works if you do the normal way of making a clone with me, where you say the chant and walk into the water. Then I would walk out along with any other clones you'd want to make. After that, we would easily take over the world. The way that you describe will create perfect replicas of yourself that act exactly like you and share your memories."

"Okay, good," Pinkie said with a smile.

"Did you understand any of that?" the mirror image responded.

"Only that the clones aren't evil," Pinkie responded in the same clone.

The mirror image started to bang her hooves against the sides of the bottle. "Why must this happen to me?"

"Miss Pie," Cheerilee called up to the pink mare, "you're up."Pinkie jumped down from her seat and landed in front of her teacher, ready for the exam. "A show off as always. Well, do what you want."

Pinkie held the bottle above her head and began to insert some of her chakra inside. The mirror image inside, not seen by any other pony, lifted its front hooves and where it pointed instantly appeared two Pinkie Pies.

To put simply, everypony in the room was shocked. Their mouths were open, and nopony spoke. Cheerilee and Twilight ran up to the clones and poked each one.

"Th-they're perfect," Twilight mumbled to herself. 'Incredible, they aren't water though, what was the need for that bottle of water above her head? Is it some sort of chakra enhancer? What is with her?'

"E-excellent job, Pinkie," Cheerilee said, her voice shaky in fright of witnessing a new technique.

"What's wrong Miss Cheerilee?" the Pinkie she had just poked, asked.

"Did we do something wrong?" the one in front of Twilight continued.

"I didn't do anything wrong," the original Pinkie mentioned. "You said we could do anything to create a clone, what I did does count as anything."

Cheerilee cleared her throat to gain back her composure. "I guess it does. Well done Pinkie, you pass."

"With that, those who passed today include Pinkimena, Snowflake [see Snowflake on .com], Lightning Dust, Rarity, and Ace [see Ace on .com]. Congratulations to all those who have made it to become genins. Come up and grab a headband so that you may show what you have accomplished."

On a table at the front of the class was a cascade of ninja headbands, some covered in dust.

"While some of these headbands were created as extras, and never picked up; this is the largest group of graduates that this school has seen."

Pinkie walked up to grab her headband, only to stand at the front of the classroom, staring at it. The symbol on the front was a cupcake, to show the happiness that ninjas are supposed to bring to others. Pinkie went into deep thought about how this was her destiny since it was her special talent to make others smile.

I'm not going to go into details, though, because we all know that this 'deep thought' wouldn't actually be very deep [I mean, it's Pinkie Pie].

It took Snowflake walking up, grabbing his headband, and giving his signature "YEEEAAAHHH!" to wake Pinkie from her day dreams.

Once everypony made it back to their seats, Cheerilee dismissed all of her students except for the graduates.

"Now, I will determine your teams. Each team of ninjas will be a group of three. What I say, goes, no questions," she stared at Twilight and Trixie at this last part. "Now, group 42 will be Twilight, Pinkie, and Rarity. This group had to consist of the best, a middle, and the worst of the class."

"Why, thank you, Miss Cheerilee. I know, I'm the best, and I'm happy that I can share my wisdom with these other two," Rarity interrupted.

"Actually, Rarity, you scored the lowest of all the graduates. Twilight scored the best," Cheerilee pointed out. "While Twilight scored the highest on everything, you only passed because you were able to transform my desk into a perfect replica of yourself. Not a clone, but close enough."

Rarity, bewildered, sat down in her seat with a huff.

"Now, group seventeen will be Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Applejack. Group nine will be Berry Punch, Derpy Hooves, and (dare I say it) The Great and Powerful Trixie. Group two will have Snowflake, Lightning Dust, and Ace."

"YYYYEEEEAAAAHHHH!" Snowflake yelled.

"Tomorrow, you will all meet your new instructors and get to know one another better. Have fun, new genin of the Hidden Leaf Village."

* * *

**Me: Well, that went well. I hope everypony enjoyed that.**

**Trixie: You put me with the ditz and the alcoholic.**

**Me: Yeah, seemed like a fun pairing.**

**Snowflake: YEAH NINJAS!**

**Me: Snowflake seems to appreciate my ideas, Trixie.**

**Trixie: Oh please, 'Yeah' is one of the only things he ever says.**

**Snowflake: YEAH!**

**Me: Point taken.**

**Snowflake: YEAH!**

**Trixie and I: SHUT UP!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2: **

**Team Meetup: A New Test**

**Me: Chapter 2! Chapter 2!**

**Snowflake: Yeah!**

**Lightning Dust: Is he really my teammate?**

**Me: Eeyup, have fun with the migraines.**

**Trixie: How long until Trixie gets her own story?**

**Lightning Dust: You? What about me?!**

**Me: Do you two really want your own story?**

**Both: YES!**

**Me: Well, I could make a story of Trottingham high school. You'd both be students and be the stars.**

**Trixie: Perfect. Trixie, the star.**

**Lightning Dust: What's the catch? There's always a catch. I was told by Hasbro that I'd get my own episode, but they never told me I would be a villain.**

**Me: You got me, you two would also star with Milky Way. The story would have to be either rated T or M because of who she is. Do you still want to do the story?**

**Snowflake: Yeah!**

**Me: It's official.**

**Trixie: Wait, he wasn't even involved.**

**Me: Doesn't matters. By the way, I noticed that my web addresses didn't go through last chapter. The website is .com just remove the spaces and put the **

Team 42, was waiting in the classroom for their mentor to show up. The other groups had their team leaders show up and take them for advanced training, meanwhile this mentor was nearly an hour late.

Twilight spent her spare time transforming the front desk into different figures and having Pinkie guess what it was. Rarity, though, drew a picture of a light blue dress, fitting every detail to look perfect.

"That's it!" Rarity exclaimed. The other two watched as she calmly got out a balloon. She then put in groups of blue fabric, glue, and glitter into it before blowing it up.

She whispered into Twilight's ear who carefully tied the balloon in the middle of the sliding doorway with a tripwire across the bottom keeping a tack elevated at the top.

"Oh come on Rarity, this'll never work anyway," Twilight said after finishing. "Our new teacher is going to be a top class ninja, he or she isn't going to fall for something like this."

"Shh, darling, I think I hear somepony coming."

"Ooh, ooh, finally. We're going to have so much fun with our new friend!" Pinkie cried, hopping towards the door to meet the new friend. Sadly, Pinkie's short attention span is about to put her in an awkward situation.

Just as the door started to slide open, Pinkie gave one last jump to land on the trip wire. Slowly the tack fell from its elevated position to pierce the balloon below.

Glue splattered across Pinkie's coat, soaking her down to her skin. Next, the fabric fell perfectly to cover the glue and form the shape of a dress, the exact one that Rarity had just drawn. Splashes of glitter then showered down just to give the right amount of sparkle.

When the door opened completely, an elderly, light green mare with a pie cutie mark was revealed. She looked Pinkie, now trying to force the dress off herself, up and down before shaking her head and walking into the room.

"So let me get this straight," she said, "my team consists of an earth pony who can't remember what happened just seconds ago and falls for a simple trap, a unicorn who gets bored easily and will make silly art, and another unicorn who sees herself as smarter than every other pony, and has the skills to back them up, yet will do the stupidest stuff when angered or put under pressure."

The three looked down in shame.

"Well, I guess that I can handle having two of you on my team. You," she pointed to Pinkie, "I'm gonna have fun with you, though."

"Fun?!" Pinkie asked.

"Sure, just wait until later today. I'm sure that we'll both have a blast." the old mare then walked over to the desk (now shaped like an elephant) and hopped up onto the trunk for a seat. "Now, let's go around the room and talk about ourselves. We'll each say our names, our likes, our dislikes, and our goals, I guess."

Twilight looked up at her new teacher. She wasn't at all impressed that of all the jounin that could have become her team leader and new teacher, she was left with this old mare that was probably late due to a weakness in her legs. Of all the jounin it could have been, she got the weakest.

"No pony going to speak?" the old mare asked. "Fine then, I'll go first. My name is Granny Smith. My likes: I'll only say that I enjoy growing apples. My dislikes: I don't really feel like telling you that. My goals: well... I don't really feel like telling you that either."

Sweat dropped from the three genins' foreheads. 'This is our leader?' they thought.

'She didn't even tell us anything except her name and one thing she likes doing,' Twilight thought.

"Now, who's next?"

Pinkie raised her hoof quickly, a huge smile across her face. "Hi, I'm Pinkie Pie. I like parties, cupcakes, friends, and making others smile. I really hate when others leave me out on purpose and when others are just mean in general. I'm going to be the next top ninja!" she said so fast that it was barely audible.

And que the awkward silence.

"Well... thank you Pinkie. That was... kinda crazy. How about you, marshmallow? Why don't you start," Granny Smith said.

Rarity laid her head in her arms on her desk; a dark, sad aura started the rise from her. "Why does everypony call me that."

Pinkie, not wanting to be involved in this moment, went back to trying to tear the dress off her body.

"Darling, you have to wash it off with water," Rarity said after five minutes of no sound except Pinkies tearing. "M-my name is Rarity. In my spare time I like to design and make dresses."

"I've noticed," Granny Smith said, looking at the paper in front of Rarity and then at Pinkie.

"I hate all things unclean and unfabulous. I also despise being called a marshmallow. My goal is to become the perfect designer and eventually become famous enough to design all things ninja and fashionable. Maybe even for Princess Celestia," Rarity continued.

"Very nice, maybe you will. You're turn wise girl. Your turn to talk about yourself," everypony turned their attention to Twilight. The two other students knew that when Twilight was a filly, her brother had moved out to join the royal army.

Twilight was heartbroken after this. She felt like she was abandoned after her brother left home. A few years later, she confronted him but he had gained enough of a reputation to marry Mi Amore Cadenza, the Princess of the Crystal Empire. When she tried to talk him into coming back home, Cadenza was there to stop her.

"Sorry, sweetie, but he's mine now," she had said. "I like your spunk though, coming here to try and get him to come back, so I'll make a deal with you. You become a ninja, learn how to fight; when you can defeat me, then we'll talk."

That was five years ago, and every pony now knew that Twilight was starting to lose her patience.

"My name is Twilight Sparkle. I guess I like reading, but I dislike many things. I don't think you need to know my goal, though. If you rub off on me enough, just maybe I'll let you in."

Granny Smith nodded, just there it was possible to see the respect that Twilight just gained.

"Uh... so, Miss Smith," Pinkie spoke up.

"Please, call me granny."

"Um... okay... granny. So, what are we going to do now?"

Granny Smith pondered this for a moment. "Well, I guess that we should do the first thing that a group of four should do."

"What would that be?" Rarity asked.

A devious smile spread across Granny's face. "Why, a survival test."

"Why would we do that?" Twilight asked, now gaining some interest in the conversation. "We already graduated. We're all set to become ninja."

"Are you sure you want to know?" Granny asked. "I'm telling you now, you won't like the answer I give."

"Well, get on with it, I'm so excited that I can't stand it!" Pinkie cried.

Granny started to laugh. "Well, all of the students who just graduated, as you said, have to take one final test before they can truly be genin. It is designed to see if you are completely qualified to be ninja in the line of battle.

"Those that pass get to continue after graduation. Those that fail are sent back to the academy."

"Well... what are the odds of us failing though," Pinkie mumbled, not actually wanting an answer. She only wanted to look on the bright side of things.

"Oh you really aren't going to like this," Granny spoke up.

"Then don't tell us, please!" Rarity was starting to cry.

"Statistics from the past show that, on average, at least half of the graduates from each year fail this test," Granny Smith smiled once again.

"Well, we're boned," Pinkie spoke above the silence.

"I told you you you weren't going to like it."

Silence fell over the group. The thought to be genin were in complete shock while Granny just enjoyed the shocked looks on their faces.

Elsewhere, the other groups were being given the same news.

"Say it isn't so!" Trixie's eyes began to water. "I can't go back for a third year!"

"Nnnnooooo!" yelled Snowflake in another location.

"Whatever, with my speed I will sail right through this," Rainbow Dash and Lightning Dust said simultaneously from their separate locations.

"Guess that I'm just going to have to serve up a can of butt hurting on you teach'," Ace said to his team leader, Filthy Rich.

Minute after minute, all the graduates were getting more and more pumped up. Each team prepared themselves for the test that would decide if they were to become ninjas or not.

That is except for team 42, who were mostly busy freaking out about how they didn't want to go back to the academy. Twilight seemed to be the only one that wasn't freaking out over the great risk given to all three of them.

"Just tell me what I have to do; I'll get the job done," she said. "Then maybe I'll help one of these two out."

"Who said that I needed your help!?" Rarity argued.

"Yeah! Besides, last I remember, you could only make illusions of yourself with magic. I made perfect, SOLID, clones," Pinkie pointed out.

A vein bulged in Twilight's temple. She then began muttering curses under her breath, trying to hold back the urge to turn her 'teammate' into a sea urchin.

Pinkie and Rarity continued to bicker on their own ideas and why they could be better than even Twilight, when a light pitched jingle reached their ears. When they turned their heads, Granny Smith was standing with two tiny, silver bells in the center of her hoof.

"Your challenge is: you have to steal these," she said. The next second both were gone with Pinkie jingling them in her ears.

"Hahahaha haha," she laughed. "Jingle jangle. Jangle jingle."

"Uh... does that count?" Rarity asked.

This time it was Granny Smith's turn for a vein to bulge in her head. "No, it doesn't." She then quickly snatched the bells away from Pinkie. "I didn't say 'go' yet."

Once again the bells disappeared from her hoof and back to Pinkie, enjoying herself a little too much. And once again, Granny took them back.

"What? You said, 'go.'"

"You know that's not what she meant!" both Rarity and Twilight yelled at her. "Are you trying to make us fail!?"

"Well, if so, at least I would have passed," Pinkie pointed out, sticking her tongue out. Before the other two could attack her though, a sudden realization came to her. "Um... if we have to take a bell to pass, and there's three of us, then why are there only two bells?"

The other two's faces turned from anger to surprise. They looked down at Pinkie's hooves (where the bells had once again magically appeared), to notice that, for once, Pinkie was right and there weren't enough for all of them.

"B-but that can't be," Twilight said, "how are we all supposed to pass."

"Maybe that's the point," Pinkie mumbled, her hair starting to straighten from its normal pink cloud. "This way, at least a third of all of us will fail. This is their way of keeping the ninja service a secret by keeping it small."

"They would never do such a thing!" cried Rarity, tears beginning to stream down her face. "If they wanted to keep the service a secret, then they wouldn't make such a big deal about joining the academy to begin with!"

"Think of it as you will!" Granny yelled out. "Your passing of the academy is now up to me! So, I suggest you stop arguing over why it's happening and start thinking of ways to steal these bells!"

* * *

**Later That Day**

The group of four stood in the middle of the Everfree Forest, in the center of a large clearing next to a sparkling blue lake. Granny stood opposite of the three genin, the silver bells hanging from her saddlebag.

Earlier Granny had explained the rules to team 42. Any technique to take the bells could be used. Fighting and playing dirty was expected. The group will have half an hour to pass, and Granny Smith was the only enemy they had.

"Peut chance briller sur vous," Twilight whispered to her two frenemies.

Rarity and Pinkie had questionable looks on their faces. "What?" Pinkie asked.

"It's ancient Unicornian. It means, 'May luck shine upon you.'"

"Oh, well... you too," Rarity said.

"Oh, I'm so nervousxited!" Pinkie yelled.

Again Rarity was confused. "You're what?"

"You know," Pinkie said like it was obvious, "when you're excited, but you're nervous at the same time."

'... I'm so done with this team,' Rarity thought.

"READY," Granny cried to get their attention, "... BEGIN!"

**ME: And, cliffhanger.**

**Pinkie: You know a lot of people don't like that.**

**Me: Yeah, but that also makes some people just want to read the next chapter that much more.**

**Milky: Um... hi.**

**Me: Well, hello there Milky Way. How are you doing this fine evening?**

**Milky: Well, fine.**

**Me: What do you have there?**

**Milky: … Milk**

**Me: … Is it yours?**

**Milky: Yes.**

**Me: … Okay, enjoy your stay in Casa de Brony.**

**Milky: Will do. I promise I'll do my best to not get anything dirty or wet or broken or-**

**Me: Milky**

**Milky: shattered or burned or destroyed in anyway or-**

**Me: MILKY! Calm down, you don't have to worry about anything.**

**Milky: Oh, good. *accidentally drops glass of milk* Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry.**

**Me: It's fine, just go get me a towel please. ^_^**

**Milky: Okay.**


End file.
